This article is adapted from the December 7, 2024, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. For many home cooks, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt carries a level of authority traditionally reserved for sacred texts. It’s less of a cookbook and more a crash course in culinary technique. It’s also an invitation to get creative. The 958-page tome, which came out in 2015, challenged a lot of conventional culinary wisdom. Want better scalloped potatoes? Stand the wafer-thin slices…
